The tragedy of Miss Emily’s life is a common reality that was repeated in the lives of many belles in post civil war United States. A combination of lack of options for women to enhance their lives and the snobbish character of the higher classes in society doomed ladies to a life of waiting for the much sought for suitor. The higher class women, by reason of their upbringing, were schooled not to accept for a husband any man that did not have a certain amount in material possessions. So strenuous was this training and its implementation by well meaning aunts and mothers, that the young women could be depended upon to see to it without any assistance when they attained the years of adulthood.
If Miss Grierson had been born to a more flexible social class, socialization among her peers would have been encouraged. Different peer groups tend to push or at least nudge each other in the right directions. Miss Grierson would have benefitted from such attentions from young women her own age that would encourage her to bravely ignore the maxims of her parents and class and make her own decisions. Once she made her choices, she would once again be able to benefit from the attentions of her peers as supporters of her right to make such a decision. She would not have felt compelled to hide any decision she made concerning her beaus.
However, her epoch did not encourage such closeness or affection between women of high society. Neither were courage and individuality encouraged aspects of the female character. A woman who insisted on doing things differently from how society insisted she should do it was judged as a being flighty and irresponsible. Spouses were to be acquired from one’s own social class and not from across the fence (Ziff,...
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.... They were taught that meekness and a simpering attitude were the right characteristics to embrace. These would achieve the attentions of powerful men who would then seek to ‘protect’ them. Emily Grierson adopted such a pose. She did not get her promised price. In the final analysis, the same society that insisted she adopt the said characteristics, judged her for not having a husband. She was helpless in her snobbish disposition, being too firmly set in her ways and unable to adopt other mannerisms that would assist in her exposure to society. She became, tragically, a victim of her own self.
Works Cited
Mc Cutcheon, Marc. Everyday Life in the 1800’s: A Guide for Writers Students &
Historians. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001
Ziff, Larzer. The American 1890’s: Life and Time of a Lost Generation. Lincoln: University
Of Nebraska Press, 1979
During this time period women were not respected at all and were belittled by all med in their lives. Even though men don’t appreciate what women they still did as they were told. In particular, “Women have an astoundingly long list of responsibilities and duties – th...
Ulf Kirchdorfer, "A Rose for Emily: Will the Real Mother Please Stand Up?” ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, 10/2016, Volume 29, Issue 4, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0895769X.2016.1222578
One of the seductive factors of William Faulkner’s society in “A Rose for Emily” is the traditional and adamant mental attitude of the main character in the novel. Miss Emily Grierson was stern in her ways and refused to accept change. She was known to be a hereditary obligation to the town. When the next generation and modern ideas came into progress she creates dissatisfaction by not paying her taxes. For many years and through the time of her death she would receive a tax notice every December and it would be returned by the post office a week later unclaimed. When the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily was opposed to the new idea. She herself did not allow them to fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mail box to it. She has no tolerance when it comes to modern ideas. Depression and anguish increased within her causing major conflicts after her father’s death. Being left alone and without any close family to seek support from, she dwelled in disbelief. As custom from the town all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, but Miss Emily met them at the door with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. For three days she was inclined to disbelieve and what had happened while minister and doctors tried to persuade her to let them dispose of the body.
We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door. So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn 't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized.’ (25) This complete sheltering leaves Emily to play into with in her own deprived reality within her own mind, creating a skewed perception of reality and relationships”(A Plastic Rose,
As times change and the old aristocratic ways become a thing of the past, the lonely Miss Emily still clings onto her old belief system and her proud, high and mighty demeanor.
Having been the only daughter of a noble family, Emily was overprotected by her father who had driven away all the young men wanting to be close to her. As a result of that, when she got to be thirty, she was still alone. It was Mr. Grierson who alienated his daughter from the normal life of a young woman. If she weren?t born in the Grierson, if she didn?t have an upper-class father, she could have many relationships with many young men in order to find herself an ideal lover. Then she might have a happy marriage life with a nice husband and children.
Accordingly, I decided the purposes behind women 's resistance neither renamed sexual introduction parts nor overcame money related dependence. I recalled why their yearning for the trappings of progression could darken into a self-compelling consumerism. I evaluated how a conviction arrangement of feeling could end in sexual danger or a married woman 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, regardless, ought to cloud an era 's legacy. I comprehend prerequisites for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the area of women into open space and political fights previously cornered by men all these pushed against ordinary restrictions even as they made new susceptibilities.
The protagonist of this story is Miss Emily Grierson, an old maid spinster without family who becomes a “tradition” and a “sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 299). The story begins with the death of Miss Emily, so I will rearrange my analysis of the character to begin with what we first know about Miss Emily.
In William Faulkner story “A Rose for Emily” has many subtle details that reveal that woman being treated as a lesser and with injustice has always happened and throughout the telling of Miss Emily Grierson’s life, you get a good look at it. For instance, the narrator reveals that “the town remembers all the young men her father had driven away” (Faulkner 732). This gives us insight into the way the female has long
When a story like this comes about in the public, everyone can think of everything Emily did wrong or how atrocious the crime was but no many will understand why she would do such a thing. She was living in a town with people who took their religion for seriously and lived by it faithfully. Whatever was not done in the religion or around it was wrong and offended them easily. The community she lived in were not welcoming and carrying people that she could socialize with. Grierson did not have any friends throughout her life because of the way she was raised, by an overbearing father that took control of her mind.
Growing up with different social circumstances, attending social mixers was an enlightening experience and once she made the move to Memphis, she gained a continual stream of suitors that accompanied her to such events. New opportunities emerged for Ida, giving her a sense of what life was like being a bachelorette in a land among woman seeking to marry. As an attractive, un-married woman in her mid twenties with an active social life she often generated suspicion and talk. Although Ida struck flings with many persistent suitors, her feelings have never been entirely clear in whom she ever truly loved. It was evident that she was not romanticized by the concept of marriage like many women were at the time.
Her chief arguing points and evidence relate to the constriction of female sexuality in comparison to male sexuality; women’s economic and political roles; women’s access to power, agency, and land; the cultural roles of women in shaping their society; and, finally, contemporary ideology about women. For her, the change in privacy and public life in the Renaissance escalated the modern division of the sexes, thus firmly making the woman into a beautiful
Society's Constraints in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Jane Austen has much to say about the society in which she lives, and where her characters live. Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins are two characters who demonstrate, through their actions and outlook on life, the social and educational constraints of their society that prevent them from making their way in the world. Social constraints play an important role in the life of women in this society. Not only do women have to marry, but also marry someone who is of their social class. A "poor" marriage, that is one to a different class, can ruin the reputation of the whole family.
The story " A Rose for Miss Emily ", which was set in a timeframe between 1865 and 1930, has much in common with the aforementioned article. Miss Emily was also from an affluent family. Her father had sheltered her. After his death she became somewhat of a recluse. A man named Homer Barron came to town to do cement work on the sidewalks and streets. They became friends. They were regularly seen around town. Even though he drank quite abit and by his own admit liked men, the townspeople thought they might get married. (1. Faulkner)
Miss Emily was part of the highly revered Grierson family, the aristocrats of the town. They held themselves to a higher standard, and nothing or nobody was ever good enough for them. Faulkner fist gives us the clue of Emily's mental condition when he refers to Emily's great-aunt, Lady Wyatt. Faulkner tells us that Lady Wyatt had "gone completely crazy" (Faulkner 93). Due to the higher standards they had set for themselves, they believed that they were too high for that and then distanced themselv...